Photographing autumn in Vijlenerbos

One week has past since I was in the Vijlenerbos. Vijlenerbos is altitude-wise the highest located forest of The Netherlands. Now October 30th autumnal colours arrived in the Vijlenerbos.

No fog or mist and yes a lot of wind, so not so easy to photograph woodland. It also was completely clouded and it rained a little bit on and of. So, next to my tripod I also needed an umbrella to protect myself and the gear. On arrival I spotted a dear crossing the main road. He spotted me too so I was to late to take an image. Wild photography honestly is also not my thing. I do not have a good long lens for it.

Vijlenerbos is photographically speaking a chaotic forest. A lot of tree-species and shrubs grow in Vijlenerbos. Everything stands close together mainly separated by old trails. Yes, in the Vijlenerbos you also have some parts only populated by big pines.

After all those trips in the past years into this forest I still didn’t find any really old and gnarly trees. But the forest now at Autumn has beautiful colours. So my main goal was to explore and get some pleasing compositions with a lot of autumnal colours. Compositions that could represent Vijlenerbos in Autumn.

During 5 miles of walking and searching for compositions I took about 120 images. Not all of these compositions were different, but I micro-adjusted the same composition a few times. My geared head on the tripod is really made for this way of composing. There was not a lot of light and the wind was a real pain in the …. But with some higher ISO settings and bigger F-stops in combination with waiting for the less windy moments it was possible to get some acceptable sharp images.

I’ve posted three favourites of my trip. I would like to hear in the comments which one is preferred. All compositions shot with my favourite Fuji 35mm F2.

Next weekend I‘ ll come back. Vijlenerbos is to big to explore in one morning. You could wander for days in the Vijlenerbos. And this forest is so beautiful in Autumn. Really worth visiting.

All content and photographs are (C) Copyright Ruud Maas. All Rights Reserved.